


Guardians

by SadinaSaphrite



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Construct Orisa, Dragonborn Akande, Dungeonwatch, Gen, Gnome Efi, I think this is legit the most innocent thing I've ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-14 23:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16050977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadinaSaphrite/pseuds/SadinaSaphrite
Summary: Efi Adawe Yoruba Gearglitter Oladele was not a wizard. She was not a sorcerer, nor shaman, warlock, or mage of any kind. She did not know that the greatest elf mages in the world had spent centuries trying and failing to create life, and she did not know that thousands of clerics had spent years arguing over the ethical ramifications of trying to do such a thing. What she did know was that less than two moons ago, she had been very frightened, and she didn’t want anyone else to ever feel the same fear she did. She was a child with a hope and a wish.And the wish of a child is a powerful thing.Written for the Dungeonwatch zine, a re-imagining of Overwatch in a Dungeons and Dragons universe. Efi builds Orisa after an attack led by the Dragonborn Doomfist.





	Guardians

_Tink. Tink. Click. Hissss. CLANGthunk. …tink._

The burrows were alive with the cacophony of sound typical of an afternoon in the gnomish clan of Numbani. Tinkers, inventors, and gemcutters were hard at work on their projects, the wizards in their workshops, the alchemists in their labs, and everyone else doing everything in between. There were no idle hands in Numbani, and everyone from children to elders had something to do or somewhere to be, adding their cheers, curses, and laughter to the din. A light-hearted lot, the gnomes of Numbani filled each day with discovery and creation, and to hear the underground city today made it hard to believe that they had been attacked only three fortnights ago.

Efi hummed to herself and settled into her harness, hooking into the complex network of ropes and pulleys that surrounded her creation. A loop here, a twist there, tie a knot just so and…there! She scrambled up the side of her towering construct and adjusted her climbing rig to hold her steady once she’d settled on the shoulder, feet braced against steel and emerald pauldrons. She pulled a set of miniscule tools from her belt and went to work on the delicate clockwork mechanisms in the back of its neck. No, _her_ neck. Efi was sure the construct was going to be female; it just felt right.

Life seemed to have gone back to normal after Akande the Doomfist had broken into their burrows, smashed his way into the archives, and stolen an ancient gauntlet from the most secure vaults in Numbani. True, he had made off with the powerful magical weapon now in the hands of The Talon Collective, but getting the gauntlet out of the clutches of evil was an adventurer’s problem, not simple townsfolk. The damage was cleaned up, no one had been hurt, and the incident all but forgotten. Besides, Akande had already taken what he wanted; it wasn’t like he would be coming back, the Burgomaster had promised. No need for alarm. 

Efi Adawe Yoruba Gearglitter Oladele wasn’t reassured. She had been present during the attack, and the young gnome found the memory of Akande’s violent assault was not so easily forgotten.

The archives had been empty that night, leaving Efi alone with her research when the alarms screeched to life. Efi dropped her book, heart pounding as she wasted precious minutes torn between hiding and running back to the safety of her parents’ burrow. The decision was made for her as the door to the archives shattered, the sound of splintering wood masking Efi’s yelp as she dropped beneath a desk, clapping her hands over her mouth as a shadow filled the ruined doorway.

The intruder was massive, easily three times Efi’s height, crouching to fit through the doorway. He was dragonborn, with glossy black scales and a set of curved horns that sprouted from the sides of his head, arching forward to frame his stern face. He wore only a pair of loose slacks the color of sand and a scarlet wrap around his waist. War paint decorated his obsidian scales, ominous intent written in the stark white lines decorating his muscular form. 

Before he had taken more than a single step past the splintered doorframe, decorative gemstones that lined the room glowed with a brilliant light and detached from the walls, fusing together to form six not-so-decorative golems, each made entirely of glittering crystal. Efi watched from under her desk as the first stepped forward, the other five standing shoulder to shoulder behind it, forming a wall of gemstone behemoths which blocked the intruder from the vaults deeper in the archive. The forward-most golem, comprised of sparkling ruby and garnet, took a lumbering step toward the intruder. 

The dragonborn looked bored as the golem trudged toward him. He held his ground until the golem raised its giant ruby fists to strike. Efi stared in disbelief as the intruder took a deep breath, opened his reptilian mouth, and exhaled a spray of sickly yellow liquid that engulfed the ruby golem, corroding its crystalline form. The giant crumbled to the ground as its body melted around it. 

Before the ruby golem had even finished deteriorating, the dragonborn charged toward the line of remaining golems.

Efi watched, eyes wide. He was unarmed! What could the dragonborn possibly expect to do? A dragon – or dragonborn – couldn’t use their breath weapon indefinitely. Could he possibly have enough acid to destroy the entire row of golems?

She got her answer when the attacker met the next golem with a solid punch, the single strike with his bare fist strong enough to crack its emerald surface. The golem staggered back, a fracture splitting along its entire length from the blow. The other golems moved as one, all four converging on the stranger, using their enormous gemstone fists to attack him from all angles.

They never stood a chance.

Hands still clamped over her mouth, Efi watched in numb horror as the stranger pummeled the golems into glittering rubble with his bare hands, then continued toward the vaults without so much as a backward glance.

A hard knot of fear constricted around Efi’s throat. She knew she should take the opportunity to run, to get back to the safety of her home, but her feet felt rooted to the spot. She was still trembling under the desk when the alarms went abruptly silent, leaving a ringing echo in her ears. 

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

A long moment passed before the sound of bare feet against stone broke the silence, growing closer with each step. Her heart seemed to pound in time with the slow footsteps, the dragonborn returning from wherever he’d gone in the vaults. Efi was shaking like a leaf by the time he passed the desk, close enough to touch, close enough that she choked on the smell of the sulfurous acid he had produced earlier. She couldn’t help it. She squeaked in alarm from behind her hands.

He stopped.

Efi’s eyes went wide. Her heart pounded in her ears and she held her breath as the draconic feet slowly turned in her direction. The intruder dropped into a crouch and she found herself trapped by venomous yellow eyes.

“So, Little One,” he rumbled, voice deep and dark with cold amusement. “You have come to witness my victory.”

Oh gods. This was it. He was going to squish her like a bug and there was nothing she could do about it. He leaned in closer and Efi pressed herself back as far as she could, tears welling in her eyes.

“Tell your people that Akande the Doomfist has returned and claimed his birthright.”

He clenched a fist, and she saw that he now wore a gleaming gold and steel gauntlet that continued all the way up his arm, attaching to a bone-spiked pauldron on his shoulder. He let out a laugh that ran like ice down Efi’s spine and then he was gone, leaving her huddled and crying under the desk.

The next few days had been more exciting than Efi had liked as she recounted what she had seen and the Clan went into a frenzy. There was so much to be done: damage to be cleaned up, alarms to be reset, lords and mages to be informed, and a great deal of it was over Efi’s head. What she _did_ know was that life had returned to normal a little too quickly. Despite the Burgomaster’s assurances that they wouldn’t be attacked a second time, Efi had seen firsthand how easily their defenses had been surpassed. The gnomes of Clan Numbani weren’t warriors or combat mages. They needed a guardian.

So she had made one.

Efi replaced the tools in her belt and closed the neck plating, covering the delicate gears. Her clockwork construct stood taller even than the towering Akande, her form reminiscent of a mounted knight in armor. This armor was much better than that of any old knight, however. She’d infused the steel armor with an alchemical concoction to make it resistant to the elements – including acid – and decorated it with gemstones cut from the pieces of the fallen golems Efi had rescued from the archive floor. Creation from the rubble of destruction. She liked it. 

Efi adjusted her rig and swung around to the chest, opening up the armored plating to put the final touches on the clockwork machinery within. Efi had been inventing for years, but a normal clockwork construct was…empty. Just a machine with no mind or soul, as empty as the golems the wizards created. Efi knew Numbani needed something more.

In the construct’s chest, gears and springs wrapped tight around an amethyst heart, a gem with the strongest of protection magic, perfect for a guardian. Currently, the heart sat inert, nothing more than a well-cut rock surrounded by machinery. Efi had looked, but the only book she’d found referencing how to make a construct think like a person was a very old text that briefly mentioned wizards binding a spirit to a gemstone. That didn’t feel right. She didn’t want to trap a spirit in her magnificent knight; she wanted her to be her own person. Willingly. 

So Efi hung in her harness, chewing on her bottom lip as she contemplated the heart, the last step. Maybe…maybe the gem was pretty enough that it would attract a spirit to live there all on its own. She had made sure it was the clearest piece of the fallen amethyst golem, and that it had been cut just right. Maybe when she wound and activated her clockwork knight for the first time, it would just…work, and there would be a soul there instead of an empty machine.

With nothing left to try but hope, Efi finished up the remaining adjustments to the construct’s gears and closed the chestplate for the last time. 

She slid down to the ground and detangled herself from the climbing rig, then activated the clockwork mechanisms, hearing the gears hum to life. Efi fidgeted anxiously as she watched the machinework slowly activate, piece by piece.

 _Please…please…we need someone to protect us…to keep us safe…_ Another thought rose in her mind, unbidden. _…and I need a friend._

Efi Adawe Yoruba Gearglitter Oladele was not a wizard. She was not a sorcerer, nor shaman, warlock, or mage of any kind. She did not know that the greatest elf mages in the world had spent centuries trying and failing to create life, and she did not know that thousands of clerics had spent years arguing over the ethical ramifications of trying to do such a thing. What she did know was that less than two moons ago, she had been very frightened, and she didn’t want anyone else to ever feel the same fear she did. She was a child with a hope and a wish.

And the wish of a child is a powerful thing.

The gears finished warming up and a light seemed to come into the construct’s eyes as she straightened up, rising from her neutral position. She looked down at the tiny gnome before her and inclined her head.

“Hello,” she said in a warm, gentle voice. “My name is Orisa.”

Efi gasped and covered her mouth, eyes wide with shock and wonder as the construct continued.

“I will keep you safe.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so happy to finally be able to share this! Comments feed my motivation.
> 
> If you want to hit me up, swing by my [fanfiction tumblr!](http://dabbledrabbleprose.tumblr.com)


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